Lewis and Clark in the same league as USD?

I'm considering both schools, USD and Lewis and Clark. It's so much cheaper to live in Portland AND they're giving me $7,500 to go there.

I realize that where I want to live and eventually practice are huge factors, but that aside, are these schools in the same league, or is USD considered a much better school? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I am considering both schools also. Rankings are not especially important to me, as I am considering turn down a T-14. I did notice one interesting thing though, looking at rankings. It looks like L&C has dropped 15 spots since 2000, whereas USD has jumped up 30 spots, which seems like a huge gain. Not sure what it means. I agree with the last person though, I think they are both well respected in their area, and if you are to go elsewhere after, you will have to work a little harder with either one.

edit: I am a moron, this is incorrect. Sorry, after 50, they were listed in Alphabetical order. I am brain dead from everything law, and I somehow overlooked that. Sorry if I confused anyone.

I did notice one interesting thing though, looking at rankings. It looks like L&C has dropped 15 spots since 2000, whereas USD has jumped up 30 spots, which seems like a huge gain.

What are you looking at? USNWR did not rank the 2nd tier in 2000. They started ranking schools 50-100 in either 03 or 04.

I will try and find the link. I could have misunderstood and it is possible the schools were in no particular order. Actually the link I looked at didn't put numbers next to 51-100, but it still seemed to be in some kind of order. If they weren't ranked and it was in random order, I guess that would explain what I thought was a big change. I will find the link and post it.

Hey Holdingmybreath,Thanks for posting your comment. I checked back and I somehow missed that after the top 50, they were listed alphabetically. This link may still be useful for some people though. Sorry to anyone I confused.

There's a couple things I've heard about Lewis & Clark. First off if you want to go into Environmental law you can't do much better, and I think that program account for a lot of their ranking. However it seems pretty mixed if you're not going into environmental, although I could be wrong about this. Also something like 40% of the class is already married and I believe there is a pretty high number of older students, so this may or may not appeal to you. I'm 22 and single, so it was a really killing point for me. Also I read somewhere that Portland law firms don't hire a lot from lewis & clark, preferring to hire from big east coast schools, this was really surprising to me, I don't know how good your job prospects are outside of Portland, they may be good, but it doesn't look like you'll get anything in the area. Again these are just things I've heard/read so don't shoot me if they aren't totally accurate. It is dirt cheap though to live right next to lots of hiking and a big city and for some people that would be perfect.

Yeah it's a turnoff that there are so many married students, but I guess social scene shouldn't be the #1 factor! I'm visiting both schools soon, so I hope to have a strong gut feeling one way or the other during my visits.

These schools also seem to be at the opposite ends of the spectrum politically. I lean a bit left, so I wonder how I would fit in at USD if it's really conservative.

Hey Holdingmybreath,Thanks for posting your comment. I checked back and I somehow missed that after the top 50, they were listed alphabetically. This link may still be useful for some people though. Sorry to anyone I confused.